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JEWRY page 27
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Now I happen to love gum. But
during a funeral service?
There are many, many mat-
ters which require the insight of
a true Torah scholar: how to han-
dle certain contractual issues,
minute details of kaslunt, sensi-
tive political matters.
And then there are situations
— such as how one speaks of a
spouse, or acts toward his rabbi,
or behaves at a funeral. It doesn't
take a genius to figure out what
to do on such occasions. It doesn't
take a learned man to know what
these instances demand. In fact,
all that's required is the most ba-
sic knowledge that Halachah
(Jewish law) teaches us: to treat
each other with respect. El
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This movie is no Shoah!
A Message To Dole
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The following letter has been sent
to GOP presidential nominee
Robert Dole by Dr. Deborah Lip-
stadt, a leading scholar in the
fight against Holocaust denial.
I
wo of your staff members
have made outrageous
statements about the
movie Independence Day.
Nelson Warfield, your campaign
spokesman, has compared this
fictionalized account of an alien
invasion of the earth with
Schindler's List. According to Mr.
Warfield, Schindler's List is a
movie "which describes an evil
but has a positive message" and
so too is Independence Day be-
cause, even though millions die,
"mankind comes together."
There are scores of people who
would like to believe the Holo-
caust was a fantasy. In fact, when
I confront its horrors, I, too, wish
it were a fantasy. But it is not. It
is dangerous to confuse fantasy
and reality. Mr. Warfield is com-
paring scenarios created by Hol-
lywood with real-life events.
Your staff should be able to dif-
ferentiate between the two. To
compare the Holocaust to an
alien invasion of the earth is to
diminish the death of millions of
people. It is a lighthearted trivi-
alization of a terrifying event.
Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, is Dorot
Professor of Modern Jewish
and Holocaust Studies and
chair of the graduate program
in Jewish studies at Emory.
Mr. Warfield justifies the
death of millions of inhabitants
of major American cities in In-
dependence Day because in the
end "we defeat the alient threat."
Similarly, your senior California
adviser, Kenneth Khachigian,
has dismissed the concerns of
those who believe Independence
Day sends a terrible message be-
cause of these mass deaths. "But
they're all liberals," Mr. Khachi-
gian has quipped.
Apparently, both these men
think these deaths are acceptable
because this is fantasy. This
lighthearted dismissal of mass
murder, even a fictionalized ac-
count, produces young people
who think that homicide —
whether it be of one or of many
— is something to joke about. It
produces young people who be-
lieve that murder is acceptable
as long as those who are your vic-
tims are the "other side."
These attitudes reinforce prej-
udice and hatred and produce
the atmosphere in which a Holo-
caust can fester and grow. They
have no place in a presidential
campaign. As a professor of
Holocaust studies who spends
her professional career trying to
teach about the evils of hatred,
I call upon you to repudiate
these statements. Hatred and
prejudice are exceedingly tena-
cious.
Truth and memory are ex-
ceedingly fragile. We do not need
your spokesmen making our task
any harder. El
(